Thursday 18 August 2011

Army Showcase Part II: Colonial British Army

Hoi,

The second subject in our new series is the British Colonial Army that I use for Black Powder games. The highlights of this army must be the Elephants. These have been showcased by themselves before on the ETS pages  http://www.hat.com/Othr8/Sander91P.html for instance so here's just the army itself.

Overview:

 Camel Corps and Indian Brigade


 Heavy Weapons and British- and Scottish Brigades



Most of these figures are either HäT or ESCI, with some metals mixed in. I really am looking forward to the upcoming HäT British infantry sets since I want to add some Blue coats (Royal Marines) and the Royal Rifle Corps to this lot.

Cheers Sander,

Listening to: "Ephemeral" by After Forever






Wednesday 17 August 2011

Holiday Update Part XII: More testshots Brunswick Cavalry

Hoi,

Here are the new HäT Brunswick Cavalry testshots. Nice little figures to put together and to paint, a sprue will contain 4 figures and horses plus several arm options. I opted for a command stand with officer and trumpeter and a seperate hussar on the charge. The Uhlan has the option of a lance arm in charging and resting position. Sine I intend to use him as ADC to my Black Duke figure I took the latter. I livened up the bases with some left over accessories from other sets, a drum, a keg and a musket (on the lancers base, but that got covered in glue and flock...).










Hope you like them cheers Sander

Listening to: "Deep Purple in Rock" by Deep Purple

Monday 15 August 2011

Holiday Update Part XI: testshots

Hoi,

Yesterday's army showcase was quite easy to fix; I just took some figures off the shelf and snapped away with the camera. For today's update I bring you some pictures of just finished painted figures again. I managed to get hold of the newest HäT testshots of Napoleonic Mounted Officers and Brunswick Cavalry, and the former are done.

The set includes a Prussian Officer, Prussian Landwehr Officer, Russian Officer (early War) and a Spanish Officer. The latter two I have painted a little different just to show what can be done with them. I needed a Bavarian officer so turned the Russian chap into a Bavarian and then the Spaniard I painted as a Württemberg Officer. All except the Landwehr Officer have separate arms, being a testhot the sabres weren't up to their full length, but this will be remedied in the production runs. These loose arms can be exchanged between the 3 officers giving you loads of diversity of pose. Some head-swaps will been a very good idea as well, I can see the Landwehr chap, with his frock-coat, as a British, Nassau, Dutch or Austrian Officer. The plastic of these test-shots was very dark chocolate brown which reminded me of the early HäT cavalry sets like the Prussian Lancers.

To identify the chaps more easily and to make the bases more dynamic I included foot figures on each base and all excepting the Landwehr Officer's attendant are HäT figures, the latter is Revell painted as reserve infantry. I like the Prussian Regular Officer the most and the Spanish figure the least if truth be told, but hey I'm not complaining in any way! This is a brilliant way to get yourself a great amount of mounted officers. Just by painting them differently you'll be able to get a myriad of mounted officers for sets were none exist or where you want some diversity. The Prussians can be painted as Russians and vice versa so opportunities galore.

True, there are some minor gripes, mentioned here and there: the horses are not the best in the hobby, this time I agree on that point, but they'll do. There's two horse who have sheepskin shabraques over which they are carrying a saddle while regular practise was the other way 'round: i.e. sheepskins over saddles and I'll bet that's what PSR will comment on, but other then that I am just as happy as a bug in a sheepskin ;-)

Here are the pictures,

From left to right: Landwehr officer, Prussian Officer, Württemberger (Spaniard), Bavarian Officer (Russian)








Cheers Sander

Listening to: Sing Loud, Sing Proud" The Dropkick Murphy's




Sunday 14 August 2011

Army Showcase Part I: WW1 Late War German Army

Hoi,

Well I thought I'd try something new: a column of Army Showcases. To start with I hereby present you with my current late war German army for the Great War game.

The entire army shot together:



The Infantry companies, there are two of them , grey and yellow company.


The Sturmtruppen with an A7V and Fokker Biplane



Cheers Sander

Listening to "Best of Kula Shaker"